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All's Well That Ends Well, Act 5, Scene 3

William Shakespeare
Every note, for your class

The story so far

Earlier in the play

Helena cures the king and marries Bertram, who rejects her, demanding his ring and a child. With Diana’s help, Helena takes her place in bed. Believed dead, Helena follows her petition towards Rossillon. Bertram returns home; Lafew proposes marrying him to his daughter, with the Countess’s approval.

In the last scene: Act 5, Scene 2

Parolles asks the Clown to deliver a letter to Lafew. Lafew initially offers him money, then recognises him and asks about his drum. Parolles asks for help regaining favour. Hearing trumpets, Lafew announces the king’s arrival and tells Parolles to follow him, promising him food.

SCENE III. The same. A room in the Countess’s palace.

Flourish. Enter King, Countess, Lafew, Lords, Gentlemen, Guards &c.
KING
We lost a jewel of her, and our esteemWas made much poorer by it; but your son,As mad in folly, lack’d the sense to knowHer estimation home.
COUNTESS
’Tis past, my liege,And I beseech your majesty to make itNatural rebellion, done i’ the blaze of youth,When oil and fire, too strong for reason’s force,O’erbears it and burns on.
KING
My honour’d lady,I have forgiven and forgotten all,Though my revenges were high bent upon him,And watch’d the time to shoot.
LAFEW
This I must say,—But first, I beg my pardon,—the young lordDid to his majesty, his mother, and his lady,Offence of mighty note; but to himselfThe greatest wrong of all. He lost a wifeWhose beauty did astonish the surveyOf richest eyes; whose words all ears took captive;Whose dear perfection hearts that scorn’d to serveHumbly call’d mistress.
KING
Praising what is lostMakes the remembrance dear. Well, call him hither;We are reconcil’d, and the first view shall killAll repetition. Let him not ask our pardon;The nature of his great offence is dead,And deeper than oblivion do we buryTh’ incensing relics of it. Let him approachA stranger, no offender; and inform himSo ’tis our will he should.
GENTLEMAN
I shall, my liege.
Exit Gentleman.
KING
What says he to your daughter? Have you spoke?
LAFEW
All that he is hath reference to your highness.
KING
Then shall we have a match. I have letters sent meThat sets him high in fame.
Enter Bertram.
LAFEW
He looks well on ’t.
KING
I am not a day of season,For thou mayst see a sunshine and a hailIn me at once. But to the brightest beamsDistracted clouds give way; so stand thou forth;The time is fair again.
BERTRAM
My high-repented blamesDear sovereign, pardon to me.
KING
All is whole.Not one word more of the consumed time.Let’s take the instant by the forward top;For we are old, and on our quick’st decreesTh’inaudible and noiseless foot of timeSteals ere we can effect them. You rememberThe daughter of this lord?
BERTRAM
Admiringly, my liege. At firstI stuck my choice upon her, ere my heartDurst make too bold herald of my tongue:Where the impression of mine eye infixing,Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me,Which warp’d the line of every other favour,Scorn’d a fair colour, or express’d it stolen,Extended or contracted all proportionsTo a most hideous object. Thence it cameThat she whom all men prais’d, and whom myself,Since I have lost, have lov’d, was in mine eyeThe dust that did offend it.
KING
Well excus’d:That thou didst love her, strikes some scores awayFrom the great compt: but love that comes too late,Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried,To the great sender turns a sour offence,Crying, That’s good that’s gone. Our rash faultsMake trivial price of serious things we have,Not knowing them until we know their grave.Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust,Destroy our friends, and after weep their dust:Our own love waking cries to see what’s done,While shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon.Be this sweet Helen’s knell, and now forget her.Send forth your amorous token for fair Maudlin.The main consents are had, and here we’ll stayTo see our widower’s second marriage-day.
COUNTESS
Which better than the first, O dear heaven, bless!Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cesse!
LAFEW
Come on, my son, in whom my house’s nameMust be digested; give a favour from you,To sparkle in the spirits of my daughter,That she may quickly come.
Bertram gives a ring to Lafew.
LAFEW
By my old beard,And ev’ry hair that’s on ’t, Helen that’s deadWas a sweet creature: such a ring as this,The last that e’er I took her leave at court,I saw upon her finger.
BERTRAM
Hers it was not.
KING
Now, pray you, let me see it; for mine eye,While I was speaking, oft was fasten’d to it.This ring was mine; and when I gave it HelenI bade her, if her fortunes ever stoodNecessitied to help, that by this tokenI would relieve her. Had you that craft to ’reave herOf what should stead her most?
BERTRAM
My gracious sovereign,Howe’er it pleases you to take it so,The ring was never hers.
COUNTESS
Son, on my life,I have seen her wear it; and she reckon’d itAt her life’s rate.
LAFEW
I am sure I saw her wear it.
BERTRAM
You are deceiv’d, my lord; she never saw it.In Florence was it from a casement thrown me,Wrapp’d in a paper, which contain’d the nameOf her that threw it. Noble she was, and thoughtI stood engag’d; but when I had subscrib’dTo mine own fortune, and inform’d her fullyI could not answer in that course of honourAs she had made the overture, she ceas’d,In heavy satisfaction, and would neverReceive the ring again.
KING
Plutus himself,That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine,Hath not in nature’s mystery more scienceThan I have in this ring. ’Twas mine, ’twas Helen’s,Whoever gave it you. Then if you knowThat you are well acquainted with yourself,Confess ’twas hers, and by what rough enforcementYou got it from her. She call’d the saints to suretyThat she would never put it from her fingerUnless she gave it to yourself in bed,Where you have never come, or sent it usUpon her great disaster.
BERTRAM
She never saw it.
KING
Thou speak’st it falsely, as I love mine honour,And mak’st conjectural fears to come into meWhich I would fain shut out. If it should proveThat thou art so inhuman,—’twill not prove so:And yet I know not, thou didst hate her deadly.And she is dead; which nothing but to closeHer eyes myself, could win me to believeMore than to see this ring. Take him away.
Guards seize Bertram.
KING
My fore-past proofs, howe’er the matter fall,Shall tax my fears of little vanity,Having vainly fear’d too little. Away with him.We’ll sift this matter further.
BERTRAM
If you shall proveThis ring was ever hers, you shall as easyProve that I husbanded her bed in Florence,Where she yet never was.
Exit, guarded.
KING
I am wrapp’d in dismal thinkings.
Enter a Gentleman.
GENTLEMAN
Gracious sovereign,Whether I have been to blame or no, I know not:Here’s a petition from a Florentine,Who hath for four or five removes come shortTo tender it herself. I undertook it,Vanquish’d thereto by the fair grace and speechOf the poor suppliant, who by this, I know,Is here attending: her business looks in herWith an importing visage, and she told meIn a sweet verbal brief, it did concernYour highness with herself.
KING
Upon his many protestations to marry me when his wife was dead, I blush to say it, he won me. Now is the Count Rossillon a widower; his vows are forfeited to me, and my honour’s paid to him. He stole from Florence, taking no leave, and I follow him to his country for justice. Grant it me, O king, in you it best lies; otherwise a seducer flourishes, and a poor maid is undone.DIANA CAPILET.
LAFEW
I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll for this. I’ll none of him.
KING
The heavens have thought well on thee, Lafew,To bring forth this discovery. Seek these suitors.Go speedily, and bring again the count.
Exeunt Gentleman and some Attendants.
KING
I am afeard the life of Helen, lady,Was foully snatch’d.
COUNTESS
Now, justice on the doers!
Enter Bertram, guarded.
KING
I wonder, sir, since wives are monsters to you,And that you fly them as you swear them lordship,Yet you desire to marry. What woman’s that?
Enter Widow and Diana.
DIANA
I am, my lord, a wretched Florentine,Derived from the ancient Capilet;My suit, as I do understand, you know,And therefore know how far I may be pitied.
WIDOW
I am her mother, sir, whose age and honourBoth suffer under this complaint we bring,And both shall cease, without your remedy.
KING
Come hither, count; do you know these women?
BERTRAM
My lord, I neither can nor will denyBut that I know them. Do they charge me further?
DIANA
Why do you look so strange upon your wife?
BERTRAM
She’s none of mine, my lord.
DIANA
If you shall marry,You give away this hand, and that is mine,You give away heaven’s vows, and those are mine,You give away myself, which is known mine;For I by vow am so embodied yoursThat she which marries you must marry me,Either both or none.
LAFEW
Your reputation comes too short for my daughter; you are no husband for her.
BERTRAM
My lord, this is a fond and desperate creatureWhom sometime I have laugh’d with. Let your highnessLay a more noble thought upon mine honourThan for to think that I would sink it here.
KING
Sir, for my thoughts, you have them ill to friendTill your deeds gain them; fairer prove your honourThan in my thought it lies!
DIANA
Good my lord,Ask him upon his oath, if he does thinkHe had not my virginity.
KING
What say’st thou to her?
BERTRAM
She’s impudent, my lord,And was a common gamester to the camp.
DIANA
He does me wrong, my lord; if I were soHe might have bought me at a common price.Do not believe him. O, behold this ring,Whose high respect and rich validityDid lack a parallel; yet for all thatHe gave it to a commoner o’ the camp,If I be one.
COUNTESS
He blushes, and ’tis it.Of six preceding ancestors, that gemConferr’d by testament to th’ sequent issue,Hath it been owed and worn. This is his wife;That ring’s a thousand proofs.
KING
Methought you saidYou saw one here in court could witness it.
DIANA
I did, my lord, but loath am to produceSo bad an instrument; his name’s Parolles.
LAFEW
I saw the man today, if man he be.
KING
Find him, and bring him hither.
Exit an Attendant.
BERTRAM
What of him?He’s quoted for a most perfidious slave,With all the spots o’ the world tax’d and debauch’d:Whose nature sickens but to speak a truth.Am I or that or this for what he’ll utter,That will speak anything?
KING
She hath that ring of yours.
BERTRAM
I think she has. Certain it is I lik’d herAnd boarded her i’ the wanton way of youth.She knew her distance, and did angle for me,Madding my eagerness with her restraint,As all impediments in fancy’s courseAre motives of more fancy; and in fine,Her infinite cunning with her modern grace,Subdu’d me to her rate; she got the ring,And I had that which any inferior mightAt market-price have bought.
DIANA
I must be patient.You that have turn’d off a first so noble wifeMay justly diet me. I pray you yet,—Since you lack virtue, I will lose a husband—Send for your ring, I will return it home,And give me mine again.
BERTRAM
I have it not.
KING
What ring was yours, I pray you?
DIANA
Sir, much likeThe same upon your finger.
KING
Know you this ring? This ring was his of late.
DIANA
And this was it I gave him, being abed.
KING
The story then goes false you threw it himOut of a casement.
DIANA
I have spoke the truth.
Enter Attendant with Parolles.
BERTRAM
My lord, I do confess the ring was hers.
KING
You boggle shrewdly; every feather starts you.Is this the man you speak of?
DIANA
Ay, my lord.
KING
Tell me, sirrah, but tell me true I charge you,Not fearing the displeasure of your master,Which on your just proceeding, I’ll keep off,—By him and by this woman here what know you?
PAROLLES
So please your majesty, my master hath been an honourable gentleman. Tricks he hath had in him, which gentlemen have.
KING
Come, come, to the purpose. Did he love this woman?
PAROLLES
Faith, sir, he did love her; but how?
KING
How, I pray you?
PAROLLES
He did love her, sir, as a gentleman loves a woman.
KING
How is that?
PAROLLES
He lov’d her, sir, and lov’d her not.
KING
As thou art a knave and no knave.What an equivocal companion is this!
PAROLLES
I am a poor man, and at your majesty’s command.
LAFEW
He’s a good drum, my lord, but a naughty orator.
DIANA
Do you know he promised me marriage?
PAROLLES
Faith, I know more than I’ll speak.
KING
But wilt thou not speak all thou know’st?
PAROLLES
Yes, so please your majesty. I did go between them as I said; but more than that, he loved her, for indeed he was mad for her, and talked of Satan, and of Limbo, and of furies, and I know not what: yet I was in that credit with them at that time that I knew of their going to bed; and of other motions, as promising her marriage, and things which would derive me ill will to speak of; therefore I will not speak what I know.
KING
Thou hast spoken all already, unless thou canst say they are married; but thou art too fine in thy evidence; therefore stand aside. This ring, you say, was yours?
DIANA
Ay, my good lord.
KING
Where did you buy it? Or who gave it you?
DIANA
It was not given me, nor I did not buy it.
KING
Who lent it you?
DIANA
It was not lent me neither.
KING
Where did you find it then?
DIANA
I found it not.
KING
If it were yours by none of all these ways,How could you give it him?
DIANA
I never gave it him.
LAFEW
This woman’s an easy glove, my lord; she goes off and on at pleasure.
KING
This ring was mine, I gave it his first wife.
DIANA
It might be yours or hers for ought I know.
KING
Take her away, I do not like her now.To prison with her. And away with him.Unless thou tell’st me where thou hadst this ring,Thou diest within this hour.
DIANA
I’ll never tell you.
KING
Take her away.
DIANA
I’ll put in bail, my liege.
KING
I think thee now some common customer.
DIANA
By Jove, if ever I knew man, ’twas you.
KING
Wherefore hast thou accus’d him all this while?
DIANA
Because he’s guilty, and he is not guilty.He knows I am no maid, and he’ll swear to’t:I’ll swear I am a maid, and he knows not.Great King, I am no strumpet, by my life;I am either maid, or else this old man’s wife.
Pointing to Lafew.
KING
She does abuse our ears; to prison with her.
DIANA
Good mother, fetch my bail. Stay, royal sir;
Exit Widow.
DIANA
The jeweller that owes the ring is sent for,And he shall surety me. But for this lordWho hath abus’d me as he knows himself,Though yet he never harm’d me, here I quit him.He knows himself my bed he hath defil’d;And at that time he got his wife with child.Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick;So there’s my riddle: one that’s dead is quick,And now behold the meaning.
Enter Widow with Helena.
KING
Is there no exorcistBeguiles the truer office of mine eyes?Is’t real that I see?
HELENA
No, my good lord;’Tis but the shadow of a wife you see,The name, and not the thing.
BERTRAM
Both, both. O, pardon!
HELENA
O, my good lord, when I was like this maid;I found you wondrous kind. There is your ring,And, look you, here’s your letter. This it says,‘When from my finger you can get this ring,And is by me with child, &c.’ This is done;Will you be mine now you are doubly won?
BERTRAM
If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly,I’ll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.
HELENA
If it appear not plain, and prove untrue,Deadly divorce step between me and you!O my dear mother, do I see you living?
LAFEW
Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon.Good Tom Drum, lend me a handkercher.So, I thank thee. Wait on me home, I’ll make sport with thee.Let thy courtesies alone, they are scurvy ones.
KING
Let us from point to point this story know,To make the even truth in pleasure flow.If thou beest yet a fresh uncropped flower,Choose thou thy husband, and I’ll pay thy dower;For I can guess that by thy honest aid,Thou kept’st a wife herself, thyself a maid.Of that and all the progress more and less,Resolvedly more leisure shall express.All yet seems well, and if it end so meet,The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.
Flourish.

Characters

Speaking

  • King46 speeches
  • 24 speeches
  • 17 speeches
  • Lafew12 speeches
  • 7 speeches
  • Countess5 speeches

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Themes

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Questions on this scene

  • Reading

    Whom does the King plan for Bertram to marry?

Locations

  • RoussillonScene

    The home of Bertram, Count of Roussillon, and his mother, the Countess. Helena grows up in their household; the opening scenes and the final reconciliation take place here. The precise site of the count's house is unspecified.

    Set here · 4 quotes in this scene

Also mentioned

  • Florence7 quotes in this scene
  • Paris1 quote in this scene